He responded with silence, thick and as chill as the night breeze whipping through the trees. I tugged my blue graduation robes tighter around my chest, shivering from both the cold and wet.
"They say you're insane," I said after it became clear he wasn't going to reply. "You would need to be, in order to believe we're anything but enemies after all you've put me through."
That dangerously amused twinkle on his eye from before returned. "Do you think I'm insane?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "I don't know what to think anymore. You're dangerous. You've done your best to kill me."
"Not my best," he corrected.
"Fine," I snapped, annoyed and frustrated and tired of the semantic circles he led us in. "You've tried to kill me. Better?"
"Wrong on that account, too, I'm afraid."
"Shut up! Just SHUT UP!" Infuriated, I recklessly pressed on, "If you are going to kill me, please just get it over with, because I would genuinely rather die than continue talking to you!"
All my emotions hit a boiling point and began to spill over in self-destructive, taunting ways. Everything I'd felt since being abducted, all the fear I'd carried since the science fair incident, it all culminated into an explosive reaction I no longer could temper down. Furious heat built behind my eyelids, though none of it spilled over. I wouldn't let it. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry now or ever. He had control over so much of my life, I couldn't relinquish that last bit.
"If only that reaction were more universal," he mused humorlessly. "I wouldn't have to actually fight superheroes to get what I want if they all begged me to end them after a simple conversation."
"Why did you really stop me from falling down there?" I asked, jerking my hand out of his grasp hard enough that I heard bones popping to point towards the ravine. "What's your angle here? First you kidnap me, you strangle me, and then you stop me from accumulating further harm when it would be to your advantage. It can't really be only because you are lazy and don't want anymore of a chase."
"You have no idea what is and is not to my advantage. And I plan to keep it that way. Now," he used two fingers to beckon me along, "come away from there so we can talk."
He turned halfway, as though he truly expected me to follow. Joke was on him, though, because my mind was made. I darted towards the yawning chasm of earth that offered the only dangerous chance of freedom I had left. Everything else fell away, just me and my destination. Ten feet. Five. Four.
"Stop!"
Three.
Two.
I braced myself to kick up off the ground.
A hand caught the loose fabric of my sleeve at the precipice of the ravine, slowing my momentum, but not enough to prevent my inevitable fall. I pivoted on my heel to take a fist full of his cloak in my other hand, using my own momentum to accelerate him further towards the steep slope. We spun like opposite spokes on a fan, me dragging him forward towards the ravine in order to propel myself in the opposite direction, back towards safety, even as he hurtled into danger in my place.
I released my hold on his cloak, although he did not return the favor with my robes, holding strong. My arms slipped out of the loose, synthetic blue fabric, one sleeve after another, until I wore nothing but an above-the-knee black dress I so cheerfully picked out for my graduation days prior, not knowing that just about any other garment would have served me better tonight.
Then, like opposing polar forces flinging two magnets apart, we repelled, nothing holding us together in a whirlwind of clashing force and acceleration. I lost my tenuous footing, skidding on my side across the packed earth for several feet, and he was flung right over the edge, plummeting through open air, still grasping at my robes which trailed after his descent like an azure burial shroud.
Barely stopping to breathe or take inventory of my new scrapes, I rolled onto my knees and scrambled into a sprint, despite my exhaustion. With powers like his, that stunt wouldn't hold him off for long and when he came after me he would be furious, likely enough to kill.
If my suspicions were correct, however, about the scope of his shadow jumping abilities, I had one chance to escape, and that was by getting out of sight by the time he made it back up the ravine. He needed to see me, to know my exact location, and if he didn't know where I was when he arrived back up here, he wouldn't know which direction to head in order to find me. I could lose myself in the forest while he blindly scoured an unsearchable amount of land.
That was all in theory. For all I knew, he had a fifth superpower that allowed him to see through trees or sniff me out on the wind. As gross as that last option sounded, I doubted it was true. If he could act like a bloodhound to track me down, he would have done it long before now.
The dark did not lend itself well to quick flight through undeveloped land. The forest canopy blocked out stars and moonlight both, leaving my eyes straining for a clear trail. Unseen bushes and undergrowth tore my legs apart with thick thorns and sturdy little branches, stinging the tender skin below my thighs from repeated abuses, but I refused to stop. I ran until I was crawling, and crawled until I collapsed.
YOU ARE READING
Super•Villainous
Fantasy"I've been looking for you." There was an unexpected rasp to his voice, a hint of desperation. He stretched out one hand, as if to brush it across my cheek, or perhaps wrap it around my throat. Oddly enough, I didn't know which option frightened me...
